1. Field of the Invention
Embodiments of the invention relate to the field of microprocessors, and more specifically, to cache leakage.
2. Description of Related Art
Modern microprocessors include a large amount of caches on-chip or off-chip. Many of these cache devices have a portion of the cache disabled, or fused off, for smaller cache sizes to provide better yields during the manufacturing process. These fused-off parts also allow for market differentiation for their lower costs.
For these fused-off parts, cache leakage power accounts for an increasingly larger amount of the total power consumption. The leakage power may be at around one Watt per Megabyte. For very large caches in modern microprocessor systems, the total leakage power is prohibitively expensive.